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MONDAY MEMO

The Monday Memo is an internal communications vehicle of the University Libraries, delivered weekly via email. All Libraries staff members may submit content by noon each Friday to Monday Memo for inclusion in the following Monday's edition.

Recipients include all Libraries regular staff members and individuals from the University or professional community.

For items to be included in the Monday Memo, please send to monmemo@umn.edu before noon on Friday.

FRIDAY FORECAST

The Friday Forecast is a digest of upcoming events, exhibits, and programs at the University Libraries. All Libraries staff members may submit content by noon each Thursday to Monday Memo for inclusion in the next day's edition.

Recipients include all Libraries regular staff members and individuals from the University or professional community.

For items to be included in the Friday Forecast, please send to monmemo@umn.edu before noon on Thursday.

Monday, December 5, 2016

For items to be included in the Monday Memo, please send all announcements to: monmemo@umn.edu before 12:00pm the preceding Friday.

News from Around the Libraries

Weekly space and construction updateThis weekly update includes the latest information for Libraries staff about the special construction and space projects underway across our facilities. This week’s topics include:

Shelving in Wilson Basement

Minitex Space in Wilson Project Update

Faculty Focus Groups for Wilson

Wilson Dewey Titles are Back

Reference Collection is on the Move

Shelving in Wilson Basement
On Thursday, December 1, the shelves in the former periodical room in Wilson Library were fully dismantled.

Many individuals throughout the libraries have helped with this project, including the building managers from all the zones (pictured), the shipping department, AIS staff, and many student workers. We would like to thank all those who helped make the shelving project a success.

In the next few weeks, pallets of shelving will be transferred to the ReUse Center. Some of the shelving will also be reused in the Andersen caverns as part of the Special Collections Research Center Project.

Minitex in Wilson Project Update
The BWBR architect firm has been working toward finalizing the layout for the new Minitex space in Wilson Library. This space consists of a portion of the recently cleared out Periodical Room as well as Room 30 across the hall. The plan is to use Room 30 for student and staff processing functions and to utilize the former Periodical area for offices, cubicles, meeting rooms and collaborative spaces. Minitex staff were provided with a presentation on the new layout and we wanted to share the latest version with the Libraries staff.

Beginning today, an abatement contractor will be putting up a plastic wall around the future Minitex office space and abating these spaces in preparation for construction work to begin in mid-January. During finals week, abatement will only be done in Room 30 so noise does not affect quiet study.

Faculty Focus Groups for Wilson
The architect firms BWBR and Shepley Bulfinch will be on campus Thursday afternoon, December 8, and we are in the process of setting up small focus groups with faculty. The preliminary list of questions supplied by the architects is:

Which of the Wilson Library’s current services do you most heavily use? Which services do your students most heavily use? Which are most highly valued?

What other activities and experiences should be provided within Wilson Library?

How often does your community use the Library’s physical spaces?

How do you use the collection (print, electronic) in your teaching and research? Has that use changed over time? If so, in what ways?

Comment on the Wilson Library’s current physical space: what works? What does not work?

What campus services do you see as natural partners for the Library?

What environments would allow your community to work in technology rich ways within Wilson library?

What services and facilities at other institutions do you admire?

They’re Baaaaack!
You may recall that we suppressed all of octavo Wilson Dewey titles from public view when we started moving things around this past summer. Almost 156,000 titles (330,000 items) transferred to Offsite Storage are once again discoverable by the public in MNCAT Discovery. 871 titles remain suppressed from the public due to problems with locations, volumes, etc. These will need to be checked manually. AIS and DMA staff hope to have these issues resolved by the end of December.

Additionally, the Dewey books sent to Utah for reclassification are starting to return north for the winter. 31% of the volumes are back. Returned titles were unsuppressed and now appear in MNCAT Discovery. With any luck, the rest of the volumes will be “home for the holidays.”

Reference Collection is on the Move
Work continues on moving the majority of the reference collection materials from the 1st floor to their corresponding location in the General Collection. A note is being placed in the record directing patrons to the 1st floor service desk if they are unable to find an item. Signs in front of the reference room will direct users to the new locations for the computers, Uniprint, and open study areas.

-Shaan Hamilton and Claire Stewart on behalf of the Wilson Capital Planning Coordination Committee"Computer Support" is now "Technology Support & Consultation"
The aftermath period of Helpdesk Consolidation has now allowed Computer Support (i.e., Mike Sutliff's department) to settle into new, but still evolving roles. The department of 3FTE (reduced from 9FTE over the past few years) has a newly defined service portfolio and new supervisory structure, position descriptions, impending adjustments to office space, and plans for a staff advisory function to provide guidance and feedback into the department's work. The department has been working on shifts in its primary focus from desktop support to other emerging and expanding areas of needs. Examples of new work include:

Participating in the development of user training processes and programs

One of the points that came out of this work was the opportunity for changing identity and name of the department to reflect the department's changing portfolio. In consultation with me, Mike and his staff have recommended "Technology Support & Consultation" as a new department name. Cabinet has endorsed this change and, effective today, December 5th, the change will begin to be implemented on organizational documents, Drive space, web pages, and elsewhere.

The InfoNOW web page has been updated. More information, including a list of other document delivery suppliers, is available at: z.umn.edu/infonowclosure. If you have any questions, staff can be reached at 612-626-3940 or infonow@umn.edu.

​A letter has gone out to clients, and they have sent numerous kudos in response. Here is just one example: "I’m sorry to learn of InfoNOW’s closure. It has bailed me out any number of times and always been very reliable. Please thank the staff on my behalf for their hard work over the years.​"​

I wish to thank Katie Otto, Bill Hill, Rachael Clark and Emily Reimer for their thoughtful planning and attention to detail throughout this process. They are a dedicated and gracious team.

-​Janice Jaguszewski​Grant Award Announced
Envisioning a winning project and producing a compelling proposal takes ingenuity, teamwork, and dedicated effort. We are pleased to announce a recently awarded proposal:

The funding will allow us to process and make accessible to researchers the work of three premiere Minnesota writers—poets Bill Holm, Robert Bly, and Margaret Hasse as well as publisher Milkweed Editions. A big round of applause for the hard work of the project team and to the behind the scenes heroes who contribute greatly to the successful launch of the projects—Mark Engebretson (Communications) who publicizes the awards and Judy Novak (Libraries Business Office) who manages the financial accounting.

-​Linda GreveLibrary Technology Conference call to register
The Library Technology Conference is scheduled for March 15-16, 2017 at Macalester College. Registration opens at noon on December 7th (this Wednesday); the Libraries will be doing a mass registration. Please send Grace (gbutkows@umn.edu) in the Administration Office your confirmation email from Lib Tech for your registration. This should include your name, confirmation number and registration cost. When registering, please select the Minitex payment option.

Registration fills quickly, so please have your registration to Grace by Monday, December 12, 2016 so we can have payment processed within 10 days.

-Libraries Administration

Staff Tidings and Kudos

Samantha Klein Hired to Help with CLRC
Samantha Klein has been hired by DMA in a part-time temporary/casual position, reporting to Christine DeZelar-Tiedman. She will be embedded in the Children's Literature Research Collections in Andersen Library, performing copy cataloging and collection maintenance support. Samantha has several years of experience in rare book cataloging and has worked as a Technical Services Librarian at Metro State University. Welcome, Samantha!

-Betsy Friesen, DMAChristine DeZelar-Tiedman's Newest Publication
Christine DeZelar-Tiedman's book chapter "Discovery of Special Collections Materials at Web Scale: Opportunities and Challenges for Metadata Librarians" appears in the recently published New Directions for Special Collections, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Beth M. Whittaker, published by Libraries Unlimited. The chapter discusses special collections materials discoverability problems in "new" discovery interfaces, such as Primo. Christine's vast experience cataloging our rare and special collections also allows her to offer some potential solutions, including some we have implemented at Minnesota at her suggestion.